Category: Solar - Ascension Now

MAJOR SOLAR FLARE AND HALO CME:

31/5/2025

Big old sunspot 4100 finally exploded--and it was a doozy. On May 31st at 00:05 UTC, Earth-orbiting satellites detected an M8.2-class solar flare. The explosion lasted more than 3 hours:

A long-duration M8.2-class solar flare recorded by NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory

Although the flare was not technically X-class, it was close. Moreover, it was a slow explosion with lots of power "under the curve." The blast was able to lift a massive CME out of the sun's atmosphere.
Indeed, shortly after the flare, SOHO coronagraphs recorded a bright halo CME heading directly for our planet:

This is a very fast-moving CME. Type II radio emissions from shock waves within the cloud suggest it is traveling 1,938 km/s or 4.3 million mph. When it strikes Earth, the CME could spark severe geomagnetic storms with auroras at mid- to low latitudes. Stay tuned!
https://spaceweather.com/

PROTONS ARE RAINING DOWN ON EARTH: STRONG SOLAR ACTIVITY:

14/5/2025

PROTONS ARE RAINING DOWN ON EARTH:
Yesterday's X1.2-class solar flare accelerated a fusillade of energetic protons toward Earth, and they are now raining down on the upper atmosphere. For a while on May 13th, the downpour was intense enough to trigger an S1-class radiation storm warning, but today the proton rain is subsiding. Current radiation levels pose no threat to astronauts or air travelers. Radiation storm alerts: SMS Text

STRONG SOLAR ACTIVITY:
After weeks of calm, solar activity is suddenly high again, with two strong solar flares erupting from opposite sides of the sun:

The first of these flares (X1.2) caused a brief shortwave blackout over the Americas and hurled a CME into space. A NASA model shows the CME hitting Mercury, grazing Venus, and completely missing Earth later this week.
The second flare (M5.3) caused a longer shortwave radio blackout over southeast Asia and probably hurled a CME into space. If so, it could have an Earth-directed component. Confirmation awaits fresh data from SOHO coronagraphs. Solar flare alerts: SMS Text
https://spaceweather.com/

THE STARLINK INCIDENT IS NOT WHAT WE THOUGHT:

25/4/2025

It never made sense. On Feb. 3rd, 2022, SpaceX launched a batch of 49 Starlinks to low-Earth orbit--something they had done many times before. This time was different, though. Almost immediately, dozens of the new satellites began to fall out of the sky.

Above: A Starlink satellite falls from the sky over Puerto Rico on Feb. 7, 2022. [video]

At the time, SpaceX offered this explanation: "Unfortunately, the satellites deployed on Thursday (Feb. 3rd) were significantly impacted by a geomagnetic storm on Friday, (Feb. 4th)."

A more accurate statement might have read "...impacted by a very minor geomagnetic storm." The satellites flew into a storm that barely registered on NOAA scales: It was a G1, the weakest possible, unlikely to cause a mass decay of satellites. Something about "The Starlink Incident" was not adding up.

Space scientists Scott McIntosh and Robert Leamon of Lynker Space, Inc., have a new and different idea: "The Terminator did it," says McIntosh.

Not to be confused with the killer robot, McIntosh's Terminator is an event on the sun that helps explain the mysterious progression of solar cycles. Four centuries after Galileo discovered sunspots, researchers still cannot accurately predict the timing and strength of the sun's 11-year solar cycle. Even "11 years" isn't real; observed cycles vary from less than 9 years to more than 14 years long.

Above: Oppositely charged bands of magnetism march toward the sun's equator where they "terminate" one another, kickstarting the next solar cycle. [more]

McIntosh and Leamon realized that forecasters had been overlooking something. There is a moment that happens every 11 years or so when opposing magnetic fields from the sun's previous and upcoming solar cycles collide and cancel (see the animation, above). They called this moment, which signals the death of the old cycle, "The Termination Event."
After a Termination Event, the sun roars to life–"like a hot stove where someone suddenly turns the burner on," McIntosh likes to say. Solar ultraviolet radiation abruptly jumps to a higher level, heating the upper atmosphere and dramatically increasing aerodynamic drag on satellites.
This plot supports what McIntosh and Leamon are saying:

The histogram shows the number of objects falling out of Earth orbit each year since 1975. Vertical dashed lines mark Termination Events. There's an uptick in satellite decay around the time of every Terminator, none bigger than 2022.
As SpaceX was assembling the doomed Starlinks of Group 4-7 in early 2022, they had no idea that the Terminator Event had, in fact, just happened. Unwittingly, they launched the satellites into a radically altered near-space environment. "Some of our satellite partners said it was just pea soup up there," says Leamon.
SpaceX wasn't the only company hit hard. Capella Space also struggled in 2022 to keep its constellation of Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) satellites in orbit.
“The atmospheric density in low Earth orbit was 2 to 3 times more than expected,” wrote Capella Space's Scott Shambaugh in a paper entitled Doing Battle With the Sun. “This increase in drag threatened to prematurely de-orbit some of our spacecraft." Indeed, many did deorbit earlier than their 3-year design lifetimes.
The Terminator did it? It makes more sense than a minor storm.

https://spaceweather.com/

X-CLASS SOLAR FLARE:

28/3/2025

Surprising forecasters, today the sun produced a dramatic X1.1-class solar flare (March 28th @ 1520 UTC) with a shortwave radio blackout over the Americas. NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory photographed massive plumes of plasma emerging from the blast site:

The source of the flare is a new sunspot emerging over the sun's eastern limb. This sunspot will turn toward Earth in the days ahead, putting our planet in the crosshairs of future eruptions. Stay tuned!
https://spaceweather.com/

GIANTS ON THE SUN:

29/10/2024

"Today we have three big things on the sun: A gigantic string of big and active sunspots, a large sunspot just coming into view, and a magnificent solar prominence," reports Maximilian-Vlad Teodorescu of the Institute of Space Science in Magurele, Romania. He photographed them all on Oct. 29th:

"All are far above the usual size of sunspots and prominences," says Teodorescu. "What a wonderful solar maximum!"
Three of the sunspots Teodorescu photographed pose a threat for very strong solar flares: 3869, 3872, 3874 have 'beta-gamma-delta' magnetic fields in which opposite polarities are bumping together in dangerous proximity. NOAA forecasters estimate a 75% chance of M-class solar flares and a 30% chance of X-flares during the next 24 hours.
https://spaceweather.com/

SOLAR MAX IS UNDERWAY:

20/10/2024

In a joint statement on Oct. 15th, NASA and NOAA announced that Solar Maximum is underway. If you saw last week's geomagnetic storm, you probably reached the same conclusion. Good news: Solar Max is not a narrow moment in time; it is a lengthy phase of solar activity that can last for 2 or 3 years. More aurora outbursts are likely in 2024 and 2025. Listen to the press conference here.
https://spaceweather.com/

SIGNIFICANT X-CLASS SOLAR FLARE:

2/10/2024

Fast-growing sunspot AR3842 erupted on Oct 1st (2220 UT), producing the second-strongest solar flare of Solar Cycle 25. The X7.1-category blast caused a shortwave radio blackout over Hawaii and hurled a CME into space. A preliminary NASA model predicts it will hit Earth on Oct. 5th. Stay tuned for the geomagnetic storm forecast.

Above: An X7.1-class solar flare on Oct. 1, 2024. Credit: NASA/SDO
https://spaceweather.com/

PLASMA FALLS ON THE SUN:

1/9/2024

Imagine a waterfall made of hot plasma falling from a precipice tall enough to swallow Earth five times. Here it is:

Dutch photographer "Neo" captured this movie on August 28th. "For three days I've been watching these prominences around the edge of the active sun," he says. "The plasma did not stop falling for a moment."
Plasma falls have been seen on the sun many times before, yet researchers still don't fully understand them. One big mystery is how fast they fall. The sun's gravity is powerful, but not powerful enough to pull the plasma down so quickly through the thicket of solar magnetic fields.
Nuclear engineers would like to figure out how this happens, because it also happens on a smaller scale in fusion reactors, frustrating their efforts to sustain an energy-producing reaction. Studies of plasma falls on the sun could lead to practical breakthroughs here on Earth.
https://spaceweather.com/

X-CLASS SOLAR FLARE AND RADIO BLACKOUT:

9/8/2024

Active sunspot AR3777 just produced its most powerful solar flare yet--an X1.3-class explosion on Aug. 8th (1935 UT). NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory recorded the extreme ultraviolet flash:

Radiation from the flare ionized the top of Earth's atmosphere and caused a shortwave radio blackout from North America to the Hawaiian islands. Mariners and ham radio operators may have noticed loss of signal below 30 MHz for as much as an hour after the flare.
Of greater interest is a possible CME. The US Air Force is reporting a strong Type II radio burst. This type of natural radio emission comes from shock waves at the leading edge of a fast CME. Confirmation awaits fresh data from SOHO coronagraphs. Stay tuned.
https://spaceweather.com/

FIVE CMEs ARE HEADING FOR EARTH:

10/5/2024

Great sunspot AR3664 has hurled an astonishing five CMEs toward Earth. They're all in this frenetic 2-day coronagraph movie from the Solar and Heliospheric Observatory (SOHO):

The two bright objects are Jupiter (left) and Venus (right). The CMEs will miss those planets and hit Earth instead.
According to a NOAA forecast model, the first three CMEs could merge for form a "Cannibal CME." Cannibal CMEs form when fast-moving CMEs overtake and gobble up slower CMEs in front of them. Internal shock waves created by such CME collisions do an good job sparking geomagnetic storms when they strike Earth's magnetic field.
The Cannibal CME is expected to arrive on May 11th. It alone could spark a strong (G3) geomagnetic storm. With two more CMEs following close behind, storm levels could become extreme (G4), sparking auroras at mid- to low-latitudes across Europe and the USA.
https://spaceweather.com/

ICE CRYSTALS CREATE A 'HOLE IN THE SKY':

30/4/2024

Last week, Andreas Kohlmann of Samnaun, Switzerland, looked up and saw a 22° sun halo caused by ice crystals floating over the snowy landscape. His iPhone11 photo of the phenomenon captured something sky watchers often overlook--the 'hole in the sky' effect:

The sky inside the halo is darker than the sky outside, creating a large but subtle disk of partial darkness around the sun. It exists because the ice crystals scatter light at least 22° away from the sun. "No light is refracted through smaller angles, so the area inside the halo is dark," explains retired atmospheric optics expert Les Cowley.
"Most rays are deflected through angles near to 22° to form the bright inner edge of the halo," he continues. "Red light is refracted less strongly than other colors, so the halo's inner edge is red hued."
The 22° sun halo is the most common of all sun halos. The next time you see one, put on sunglasses to reduce the glare. You may see your own 'hole in the sky.'
https://spaceweather.com/

SOLAR RADIATION STORM--NOW:

13/2/2024

For the second time in less than a week, energetic solar protons are raining down on Earth's upper atmosphere. Forecasters call this a "solar radiation storm." Today's storm (near category S2) is rich in "hard protons" wiith energies greater than 50 MeV. It is causing a shortwave radio blackout inside the Arctic Circle and speckling the cameras of some Earth-orbiting satellites.

The plot above shows storm data recorded by NOAA's GOES-18 satellite in Earth orbit. Sensors on the satellite are counting energetic protons as they pass by en route to Earth. Triggered by an explosion near the sun's southwestern limb (inset), this storm could last for another 24 hours.
https://spaceweather.com/

SUNSPOT COUNTS HIT A 21-YEAR HIGH:

5/7/2023

The sun is partying like it's 2002. That's the last time sunspot counts were as high as they are now. The monthly average sunspot number for June 2023 was 163, according to the Royal Observatory of Belgium's Solar Influences Data Analysis Center. This eclipses every month since Sept. 2002:

Above: This plot is based on NOAA's interactive Solar Cycle Progression. Check it out!

Solar Cycle 25 wasn't expected to be this strong. When it began in Dec. 2019, forecasters believed it would be a weak cycle akin to its immediate predecessor Solar Cycle 24. If that forecast had panned out, Solar Cycle 25 would be one of the weakest solar cycles in a century.
Instead, Solar Cycle 25 has shot past Solar Cycle 24 and may be on pace to rival some of the stronger cycles of the 20th century. The last time sunspot numbers were this high, the sun was on the verge of launching the Great Halloween Storms of 2003, which included the strongest X-ray solar flare ever recorded (X45), auroras as far south as Texas, and a CME so powerful it was ultimately detected by the Voyager spacecraft at the edge of the solar system.
www.spaceweather.com

A SOLAR STORM AND THE PLEIADES:

24/5/2023

Before the launch of the Solar and Heliospheric Observatory (SOHO) in 1995, astronomers had never seen anything like this. Behold, a solar storm passing directly in front of the Pleiades:

SOHO recorded this rare conjunction on May 21st. An erupting filament of magnetism near the sun's north pole propelled the CME into space just as the Seven Sisters were passing by. Electra, Taygete, Maia, Celaeno, Alcyone, Sterope, and Merope spent nearly three hours shining through the translucent solar storm.
When SOHO left Earth almost 30 years ago, it carried the first realtime coronagraph into space. Coronagraphs are devices that create an artificial eclipse, blocking the glare of the sun to reveal nearby stars, planets, and comets. No telescope on Earth could see something as faint as the Pleiades only a few degrees from the sun, but SOHO does it all the time.
https://spaceweather.com/

TODAY'S RARE HYBRID SOLAR ECLIPSE:

20/4/2023

"It was a brilliant beautiful eclipse," reports eyewitness Eliot Herman. "We observed on a small island in the Montebello group off the coast of Australia very close to the center line." This is what he saw:

"Paul Maley made the arrangements and got the permissions," he adds. "There were only 15 of us, and it was really special to have the island to ourselves so far from civilization."
Maley was taking pictures alongside Herman. "This was my 82nd solar eclipse," Maley says. "At our location the eclipse lasted only 55 seconds, but it was spectacular. The sky was super clear following the recent passage of cyclone Ilsa." The exceptional transparency allowed him to capture several red prominences around the rim of the sun:

Now a marine conservation reserve, the islands were the site of three British atmospheric nuclear weapons tests in 1952 and 1956. Herman brought a Geiger counter to their observation site. "I tested a bunch of rocks and fragments but nothing was 'hot,'" he says. "The Montebellos are quite isolated. It was remarkable to have a chance to be here."
Today's hybrid eclipse was the first in almost 10 years, making it a rare event. Hybrid eclipses are a mixture of two types: annular and total. This one began as an annular eclipse over the Indian Ocean, transitioned into a total eclipse over western Australia, and ended as an annular eclipse over the South Pacific: map.
www.spaceweather.com